


Try me

by ccshbh



Category: sprousehart - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-17 08:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 17,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14184714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ccshbh/pseuds/ccshbh
Summary: Him: born in Italy, raised in California. Forced to leave L. A. right at the start of his senior year, because his dad found a new job in Cleveland. Frases his sentences with words to complicated for most of his peers. Photographer. Twin.Her: a Cleveland native. Not really a popluar kid, but also not among the social outcasts either. A burning passion for acting. Always somewhere in between. The drama club is her second home. Loving daughter and sister. A poet. A senior. An introvert.Or: what would have happend if Cole and Dylan never got famous and SH had met in Highschool.





	1. Chapter 1

She was late. Of course, she was. First day of senior year and she was running to her first class, because her alarm clock had stopped working, and her mom had left earlier than usual this morning. None of her sisters had bothered to wake her either. Probably because they’d thought she would be on her way already.

It had been Mads’ text that woke her.

“Girl, where the heck are you? We’ve been waiting for you for 30 minutes now.”

These things only happened to her. This was typical Lili. A slumber so deep that not even her sisters going for their morning routine had woken her up. And so, she was stumbling all over herself, her hurry just slowing her down, as she threw on her cloth while running downstairs. 

She had planned out her make-up and outfit carefully the day before, she had planned on making an entrance for her senior year. Now she was in jeans and T-shirt, her hair thrown up into a messy bun, no make-up. The big entrance had to wait until tomorrow. 

The halls of her school were already deserted, but she still had five minutes left and if she kept up her pace she’d make it to her new homeroom in two. Thank god, for the internet and the fact that their school put all the information up on their website a week before summer break ended. 

With a screeching of her sneakers on the floor she rounded the corner and turned into the hallway her homeroom was in. She was so occupied with not dropping her books or back pack while running that she didn’t pay much attention to where she was going. She’d been to this school for 3 years now. Her feet knew the way anyway.

Not this time though. She suddenly bumped into something hard. Her books tumbled to the floor, while two hands came up to steady her shoulder.

“Careful” she heard a low but nonetheless boyish voice say. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m late.” she stammered and looked up. Her gaze met clear blue eyes. 

“Breathtaking eyes” she thought for a second and suddenly wished she would have had the time to dress up and put proper make up on.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t look where I was going either. Let me help you.” he bent down and started to pick up her books. Only now she noticed his unruly black hair. It was all over the place.

“But it suites him.” she thought. It looked like the kind of hair one wanted to run their fingers through.

His face was not familiar however. It was a big school, but she would have definetly remembered that face.

“You’re new here?” she asked while bending down to grab her calculus book.

“Yeah.“ he answered. “Me and my brother. We are actually searching for the office. Can you tell me where it is? I’m Cole by the way.” 

“Like the jazz singer?”

“Yeah. It’s a long story.”

“I’m Lili.”

“Like the flower?”

“Yeah, but with an “i” at the end. And sure, I’ll explain you the way, but we’ll have to hurry, I’m already super late.” she straightened up again and he handed her the rest of her books.

“Just a sec.” he said and proceeded to yell: “Dyl, come back here, I found someone who actually knows his way through this fucking maze of a school.” 

Just a few heart beats later another boy rounded the corner at the opposite end of the corridor, also running. As he came closer, she noticed that his hair was blond and long, but his face looked remarkably like Cole’s. 

When he came to a hold in front of them he muttered: “Finally someone.” and then he held his hand out to her: 

“Hi, I’m Dylan.”

“Lili” she repeated and shook it. “Okay, listen, we need to make this quick or I’ll get in trouble on the first day of senior year and I’m not all to keen on that to be honest. You guys head down that corridor, turn right, get up the stairs, then turn left and it’s the second door on the left. Got it?”

They nodded in unison and she flashed them a smile. 

“Great. Maybe see you around. Have a great first day.” with that she waved at them and started running again. 

“You too and thanks” Cole yelled and looked after her until Dylan’s voice shook him out his thoughts. 

“If you take a picture, it will last longer.” 

“Huh?”

“You are staring at her.”

“I’m not.” 

…

“It’s only the first day and I’m already so done.” Mads huffed and dropped her tray on their table at lunch. 

“With the kind of food, you are eating I would be too.” Lili answered, looking at Mads’ plate which contained a shocking amount of green. 

“Oh Lilipad, not all of us can have the diet of a kinder gardener.” 

Lili smirked and popped two french-fries at once into her mouth: “I don’t regret a thing.” 

“I agree with Mads” Casey scoffed, flipping through various sheets of paper in front of him. 

“Senior year will be the most stressed out I’ve ever been. I mean look at our time table. This is inhuman.”

Lili, tried to be optimistic (it was goal she had set for herself in senior year) and shrugged: “We’ll manage.”

“Aaaand even more important…” Liz, Lili’s best friend, cut in. “Who are those new hotties over there? Especially the blond one.”

She nodded towards the serving counter. All of them turned their heads and Lili saw Cole and Dylan, stretching their necks, obviously searching for a free table in the overcrowded cafeteria. 

“Cole and Dylan.” she said without thinking about it. Her friend’s heads snapped towards her. 

“You know them? And you didn't tell me?” Liz asked, and her eyes narrowed a little.

“I bumped into them this morning while running to class. They are new here and were searching for the office.”

“So, they’ll need friends.” Liz grinned and before Lili could stop her she’d yelled:

“Hey, new guys!! Wanna sit with us?” through the whole room.

Cole and Dylan turned on their heels, seemingly confused at first, then looking at each other, Cole mouthing something like “Why the hell not?” at his bother and started walking towards them. 

They dropped down right next to Lili and without much further ado Cole greeted her with a hug.

She froze for a second. Well, he was pretty straight forward it seemed, but she couldn’t help noticing that he smelled good. A mixture of cologne and… she couldn’t quiet figure out what it was, but there was another faint undertone. And damn, did he give great hugs. 

“You saved us this morning, seriously.” he said. “Thanks again.”

“Yeah, thanks again Lili!” Dylan added.

“Uhm… you’re welcome” she responded, as he pulled back. 

After that, a lot of introducing and hand shaking followed, but it took them all about three seconds to get over the awkwardness of meeting new people. By the end of lunch break the conversation flowed easily.

“Okay, you guys heard this question probably a million times, but I have to ask.” Liz asked. “Are you…”

“Twins?” Cole and Dylan responded at the same time, then looked at each other and started to laugh.

“Yeah, we are.” Cole continued. “But we ditched that looking alike thing like 3 years ago.”

“We didn’t ditch that.” Dylan exclaimed. “You traitor just went and got your hair cut and dyed.”

“Wait, you had long blond hair?” Lili asked and was surprised how the question just spilled out of her.

Cole rolled his eyes: “Believe me, you don’t want to know. Dylan rocks that look way better than I do. I just looked like a very bad version of Legolas. I’m afraid there are still pictures somewhere, but one of these days I’ll get around to finally abandon them to their fate at some open fire place.”

At the end of lunch break, Lili regretted having to get up and leave for her Algebra class. The twins were really fun, and she had just started to find out more about them.

They had moved here from L. A., because their dad had found a job as a teacher at the local middle school, they had an obsession for video games and seemed to be the masters of sarcasm. And for some reason – and she couldn’t really put her finger on it – she wanted to know more. Especially about Cole. She’d already noticed how carefully and complicated he phrased his sentences. First, she’d thought that it might be an after effect of having an English teacher as their father, but after paying attention to how Dylan expressed himself it occurred to her, that he didn’t do that. He also kept twirling his hair around his fingers. It intrigued her and she really wondered why.


	2. Chapter 2

Cole was staring at the list of extra curriculars in front of him and let out an annoyed sigh. If you’d ask him, he would have ditched extra curriculars all together, but for some reason society had decided that they looked good on college applications, so he had to choose at least one. He looked over at Dylan who was sitting on the opposite side of the kitchen table, running his fingers through his hair, seemingly struggling with the same question. 

“This is a mess.” Cole huffed.

“Oh great, you have no idea what to choose either.” Dylan looked up and down the list again.

“I mean… how? There are like 5000 possibilities and ALL of them sound extremely boring. At least we can cross out any type of sport. And glee club.”

“Let’s definitely cross out glee club. I wouldn’t do that if you’d pay me.”

“You think we can just start, I don’t know, a D&D club?”

“As great as that sounds, I’m afraid they won’t let us do that. Also, do we really want to show everyone that we are massive nerds during like the first week?” 

“Sorry to break it to you but I think we blew that cover when we latched out into a 30 minute discussion about Death Note with Liz at lunch today.”

Dylan leaned back in his chair. “Huh, yeah, maybe. How long do we have to pick something?”

Cole shrugged: “Until the end of the week I guess. But to be honest, I’m about done with it already. I’ll just grab my camera and see what Cleveland has to offer.”

With that he waved his brother good-bye, grabbed his Canon and left the house.  
…  
He’d merely walked two blocks, when he found an old brick-wall building, that was begging to be photographed. It was crumbling and surly not the safest place to enter, but it wasn’t like Cole had ever cared if the places he captured were dangerous. Or if he was allowed to enter them. 

The building had something about it. Although it seemed to be barely holding up, it still carried the air of days long passed… better days. This building had stories to tell. Stories no one would ever hear probably, but he could at least try to listen.

He went up and down the cyclone fence for a while, searching for a hole through which he’d be able to enter. Unfortunately, unlike the building, the fence seemed to be kept in a rather good condition. After looking around carefully, to see if anybody was around, he decided to just give it a try and climb the fence. He’d barely climbed half the way up, when he heard a voice behind him.

“What are you doing?” 

He winced and almost lost balance. Somehow, he managed to grab the fence again and land on his feet. Turning around, he was ready to snap at whoever was standing there, but the words caught in his throat when he realized it was Lili.

She was standing there, her hands on her hips, her piercing eyes looking at him questioningly. From what she was wearing it seemed like she had been on a run. Her hair was up in a messy bun again, exactly like the first day of school and she had one of her headphones plugged in, while the other was dangling in the air loosely. 

Cole looked at her for a second, forcing himself to not stare at the way her legs looked in those leggings. He had thought about how gorgeous she was since they’d met more than he liked to admit. 

“I uhm...” he was literally stumbling over his words. For fucks sake. “I tried to get in there. You know, get some pictures.” 

He made a vague gesture in the direction of his camera bag.

Lili came closer, looking at him, then at the camera bag and back up at him again. 

“Are you a photographer?” she asked.

“In some kind of way, yeah.” 

“How can you be a photographer in ‘some kind of way’?’”

“I don’t really photograph people. Mostly just landscapes and buildings. Normally when people say photographer, they think about that guy that tells you to smile for the yearbook or the people who do all this high fashion stuff in New York.”

“Huh” she huffed. “To be honest, I’d rather look at a photograph of a landscape than some fancy model” 

“Really? Why?” he couldn’t help it, her statement had made him curious.

“Because they are more romantic.”

“Romantic?”

“I don’t mean that in a lovey-dovey kind of way. But a picture of a landscape has something promising about it. It opens the world to you. It shows you places outside your day-to-day life. It makes you wonder what it would be like to travel there and see it for yourself. It makes you dream. I don’t know, it seems romantic to me. Maybe that’s stupid.”

Cole thought for a second, then smiled: “No, it’s not at all. I just… never looked at it from that perspective to be honest.” 

They went quiet for a moment.

Then suddenly she asked: “Why this building?” 

He shrugged: “It seemed like it had stories to tell.”

“Enough stories to break a leg while climbing that fence?” Cole heard the slight sarcasm in her voice and couldn’t help the goofy grin appearing on his face.

“I mean, where is the fun of trespassing, if you don’t lose at least one limb?”

Lili rolled her eyes at him, but a little giggle escaped her mouth. 

“God, she is not just gorgeous, but also adorable.” Cole thought.

“Do you know anything about this building?” 

She nodded. “Yeah. It’s been abandoned since I can remember, but my grandfather always said it used to be an orphanage. We were told to not go there, because it’s dangerous.”

“Yeah, well, the word dangerous never quiet kept me from doing something.” Cole said and started another attempt on climbing the fence. 

Half way up, he turned around: “Want to tag along?”

…

“Do you really think we should go up there?” 

Lili looked up the old, wooden stair case skeptically. 

Cole shrugged: “Why not?”

“Because it looks like it’s going to break down the minute someone steps on it.”

“Nah.” Cole said and before Lili could even move, he was running up the staircase, taking two steps at a time. When he arrived at the top, he turned around, daring her to follow him just with his eyes.

Lili hesitated just for a moment, then she gently put her feet on the first step, just to see if it gave a crack. It didn’t, and she continued upstairs, ever carefully.

Cole watched her steps and when she had climbed about half of the staircase, he suddenly realized, that the light filtering in through the old, dusty windows hit her just right. 

“Wait.” he said, and she froze in her movement, looking around, as if she was waiting for the staircase to collapse right under her.

“Stay like that, just for a sec.” he said, lifting his camera.

Surprise flickered across her face, but just for a moment, then she curled her lips up into a coy smile.

It was undoubtedly the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. 

…

That night, as he was trying to edit the pictures he’d taken in the orphanage, he spent an unusually long time looking at the one he took of her. He quiet didn't know what to do with it. He considerd various filters but dismissed all of them without a second thought. It took him a full 15 minutes to realize that the picture just didn’t need any editing.

…

“What’s that?” Dylan asked, looking at the envelope Cole was clutching on their way to lunch. 

“An envelope” Cole answerd.

“Duh, thanks Sherlock, I would have guessed that. But what is in the envelope and why are you carrying it to lunch?”

Cole sighed a little, looked at the envelope and then up at his twin brother again. “Its… uhm… a picture of Lili actually.”

“Wait what?” his twin brother stopped in his tracks, eyeing him suspiciously. “How did you get a picture of her? Did I miss something? When did Mr. I-only-photograph-landscapes start to photograph people?”

“It’s just that one. When I went out to snap a couple of pictures yesterday, I found this old abandoned orphanage, just two blogs down from where we live. Lili came along by coincidence and she tagged along.” 

“Which you didn’t mind at all of course.” Dylan said and winked.

“For fucks sake Dylan. I only took a picture of her.” Cole groaned. 

“Yes, something our friends in L.A. begged you to do for months and you wouldn’t budge, but here you are, taking one of a girl you’ve known for about a week.”

“The light just hit her right, it was begging to be taken.” 

“Sure.” Dylan scoffed and continued his way to the cafeteria.

When they reached their usual table, Liz and Lili where already sitting there, their lunch trays abandoned next to them, crouching over a book.

“Are you guys seriously studying during lunch break?” Cole arched an eyebrow at them.

Their heads snapped up and Liz rolled her eyes. “Guess what, some of us actually have to put in work for their grades and can’t sneak off to adventures at abandoned orphanages. By the way, now that I know you are a photographer I have a request for you.”

Cole saw the blush creeping up on Lili’s neck and she shot him an apologetic look. 

“I’m… she…” she started.

Cole just waved a hand and shrugged: “It’s okay. What’s the request Liz?”

“Okay, listen, the drama club needs someone to document their work for the yearbook. Everything. From the first rehearsals to the grand premier. You think you could do that?”

“I think so, yeah.” Cole answered, although he was a little taken aback by the idea of spending entire afternoons in the front row of the school’s own little theater. “It would save my dilemma with the extra curriculars.”

“Awesome.” Liz clapped her hands. “You are in then?”

He shrugged again: “Sure why not.”

“Great.” with that Liz turned towards Dylan and quickly had him wrapped up in another conversation about Marvel.

“What’s that?” Lili asked, while pulling her lunch tray closer towards her and nodding at the envelope in his hands. 

“Oh… that.” Cole mumbled, suddenly becoming a little self-conscious. “It’s actually for you. It’s the picture I took of you yesterday. Figured you might want it.”

He handed her the envelope and when she opened it, the same coy smile from the day before appeared on her lips. 

“Cole it’s… wow, it looks amazing. I look amazing. How did you do that?”

“I didn’t do anything to be honest.” he responded. “There was no need to edit it.”

Another blush crept up her neck. “Thank you.”


	3. Chapter 3

It took Cole a full 30 minutes to find the school’s theater. For fucks sake, he had been to this school for two weeks now and still didn’t know his way. If it wasn’t for Lili, Casey and Liz he would have been late to every single one of his classes.

He was definitely late now. Lili had explained the way from his last class to the theater as detailed as possible, but he still had managed to somehow take a wrong turn or something. By the time he’d finally found the right way, he had five minutes left. So, he was running now. And his body did not appreciate it. Like at all. Maybe an athletic extracurricular wouldn’t have been such a bad choice after all. It would have at least helped to make his lungs get used to more than three minutes of running until they felt like they were collapsing. The fact that his camera bag and his backpack where somewhat painfully bouncing against his back and hip didn’t help to much either.

He cursed himself for all the time spent in front of a screen playing video games instead of going outside and participate in some kind of physical activity. After all he’d grown up in California for fucks sake. It’s not like rainy days had kept him from going outside.

When he finally arrived at the theater, everyone had already gathered in the front row and turned around to look at him when he pushed the doors open. Great. This was the last thing he wanted. He’d never liked being the center of attention. That was why he had chosen to stay behind the camera.

“Very well, Mr. Sprouse finally decided to join us.” Mrs. Davis, the drama teacher called out and Cole tried to will the ground to open and swallow him just by staring at it.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, forcing his breath back to normal. “I couldn’t find the way to the theater.”

“Well, you’ll get the free pass this time, because it is true, this school is a maze and you are still new here. But next week, its 4 p. m. sharp and not a second later.”

Cole nodded, murmured a quiet “thank you” and then dropped into the seat next to Lili, slumping back as far as he could.

“I seriously couldn’t have explained it with more detail.” she whispered.

Cole lifted his hands in defense. “I’m sorry, really, somehow I managed to take a wrong turn nonetheless.”

She shot him a look. “You would lose your head if it wasn’t attached to your body, honestly.”

“Probably.” he mumbled.

If anyone else had shot him a look like that and followed it up with such a comment, it would have annoyed the shit out of him. But not with her. She could have insulted him and his whole family right there and he wouldn’t have been able to get mad at her. And it wasn’t like she was wrong.

He directed his attention back to Mrs. Davis, who was going through the audition details.

“This year’s production will be ‘Dance of the Vampires’”

Cole heard a few people behind him groan. Leaning over to Lili he whispered: “What the fuck is ‘Dance of the Vampires’?”

He saw her face light up and couldn’t help but think again how gorgeous she was.

“A musical.” she mumbled. “It was on Broadway for like 6 months, but I heard it was a big success in Europe.”

“Oh. Okay.” Cole slumped back into his seat, forcing himself not to role his eyes. A musical. Out of ALL art forms that could be performed on a stage, he had to photograph a musical. Because it was so easy to capture people who broke out into song and dance every five seconds.

…

“So, what are you going to audition for?” Cole asked, when they left the theater two hours later.

“Probably Rebecca.” Lili answered.

“The landlord’s wife? Are you kidding? You should totally go for Sarah.”

“I don’t know.” she tucked at her jacket self-consciously. “It’s a major lead you know?”

“And you think you can’t do that because?”

“I’ve never really played a lead, to be honest.”

He looked at her, honestly surprised: “You never did? Why?”

“I never really auditioned for them. I never worked up the nerve to be honest”

“I think you would be amazing. Well,” he added.  “Given you can sign.”

She scoffed, suddenly seeming so much more confident than before: “You have no idea, Sprouse.”

She stepped just a little closer, tilting her head up, looking up at him and poking his chest.

“So, you can sing?” he asked, trying not to let the sudden nervousness that had flamed up inside him reflect on his face.

“Maybe.”

“Proof it.”

“I’m not going to break out in song in the middle of a school hallway, Cole.”

He grinned at her, almost cheekily, despite his rapidly fastening heart beat: “Isn’t that like the point of a Musical? Breaking out into song at any given time, especially when it doesn’t make any sense AT ALL”

“Not a musical fan, are we?” she grinned.

“Not really. But I’m willing to be proven otherwise.”

The moment the word left his mouth, he knew she’d taken it as a challenge and would now do everything in her power to convince him of the opposite.

“By the end of the year, you’ll be listening to nothing but musical soundtracks, trust me.” Lili smirked.

He rolled his eyes at her.

“We’ll see about that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	4. Chapter 4

He’d figured that Lili wouldn’t waist a lot of time in convincing him that musicals weren’t as horrible as he thought they were, but that she would be starting right the next day surprised him. At lunch she slammed a Blue-Ray in front of him on the table and exclaimed:

“Dylan, Liz, Casey, Mads, me and you, movie night at my place. Tonight. And we are starting with this one.”

“Uhm… what the heck?” he asked, grabbing the Blue-Ray and sighing when he saw which film it was. “Moulin Rouge? Seriously?”

Liz sat down next to Lili. “You are not getting out of this Sprouse. Everybody else already promised to come over.”

Cole turned towards Dylan and raised an eyebrow. “You knew about this assault?”

“Yeah. Liz told me.” Dylan shrugged.

“And you couldn’t warn me? I mean… this?” he took the Blue-Ray, grabbed it between his thumb and index finger and waved it in front of his brother’s face.

“I promised them not to. I’m not one to break my promises.”

“Traitor” Cole huffed and turned back to Lili. “Well played Reinhart.”

She smiled, obviously very proud of herself and took a bite of her fries.

For fucks sake, she was just insanely cute.

“What’s the rest of the movies?” he asked, focusing on his own lunch to avoid staring at her.

“Well, everybody can pick one. Just bring your favorite movie or something.”

…

He spent an eternity searching for a good movie. He couldn’t just bring Lord of the Rings because… well, those movies were like 20 hours long. So, he was sitting in front of his families Blue-Ray collection and read the backs of the plastic cases for the 100th time.

“For fucks sake, just PICK ONE. Nobody cares which movie you bring.” Dylan scoffed passing through the living room on his way through the kitchen.

“Shut up.” Cole responded, rolling his eyes at him. He knew his brother was right. Nobody cared which movie he brought along. But HE cared what they might think. Well, what one person in particular might think.

It was ridiculous. It was just a movie. And when did he start to give a shit about what people thought about him, anyway?

“Again. Its not what people think. Its what she thinks” the little voice in the back of his head whispered.

He groaned in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. What was he doing here, seriously? His eyes ran over the Blue-Rays again.

He ended up picking “Gridiron Gang”. It’s something he’d probably only watch if he was bored, but at least it had a message. And you couldn’t do anything wrong with some old-school Dwayne Johnson, right?

…

They arrived at Lili’s just on time. And running. But that was nothing new.

Everybody was already there and when they entered the living room junk food heaven unfolded in front of them. It looked like Lili and Liz had bought the whole candy isle at Target. Various types of chips, popcorn, chocolate, gummi bears, liquorish, pizza and a surprising amount of Mountain Dew we’re spread all over the table. Cole pointed out the latter and Mads shrugged.

“That’s probably Lili’s doing. She basically lives off Mountain Dew and Pizza.”

Huh. He didn’t know why he was surprised about that. After all he had spent lunch time with her for the last month or so. But, to be completely honest he really didn’t give a lot of attention to what she was eating. Apparently, she didn’t give a fuck about calories. Just another thing on the list of things he liked about here.

Lili entered the room, greeting them both with a hug.

“Great, you still came, despite the looming threat of a musical.” she laughed, and Cole couldn’t help but roll his eyes at her.

“Tsk. I’ll just focus on the food.”

“Don’t you dare. You are going to watch that movie. I’ll make you if I have to.”

He couldn’t help the stupid grin on his face. That’s another thing he learned about her since they meet. She was incredibly good at banter. No matter what kind of stupid shit he said, she always seemed to have a witty answer.

The six of them settled on the couch and he ended up sitting right between his brother and Lili.

She was suddenly very close and it made him nervous as hell.

Dylan shoot him a meaning full look and Cole rolled his eyes for the third time that day. He hadn’t exactly talked to his brother about what was going through his mind every time he was around Lili, but he was sure Dylan knew. As much as he hated all the twin clichés, it was true that him and Dylan had always been able to communicate with as much as a look and mostly knew what the other one was thinking. And right now, Cole was somewhere between rigid panic and fighting the urge to put an arm around her.

What the actual fuck? Why was this happening? He’d always prided himself on a certain amount of confidence but right there, sitting next to her, it was like it had all melted away.

He tried to relax and leaned back into the couch, focusing intently on the screen. Maybe, if he just focused on the movie…

…

To his surprise he didn’t hate it completely. He still wasn’t a fan of the sudden (and totally unnecessary) outbursts into song and dance, but Moulin Rouge was a mix of colors and great camera work, which the photographer inside him appreciated.

After the credits, Lili got up from the couch and grabbed three of the now empty bowls on the table.

“I’m going to get some more snacks? You guys want anything specific?” she asked.

Everyone shook their heads, except for Dylan and Liz who were already engrossed in a discussion about which movie to watch next.

He didn’t know why, but for some reason he got up too and before he could stop himself he had uttered: “I’ll help you.”

Lili looked a little surprised but then she shrugged and handed him two of the three bowls.

He followed her to the kitchen and half way she nudged him on the shoulder. Her touch sent something through him that felt like a lightning strike.

“So, what did you think about it?” she asked.

“Meh.” Cole said. He wasn’t going to give in that easy. “I mean it wasn’t totally horrible, but still.”

She scoffed and handed him a bag of chips: “You are very stubborn, aren’t you?”

“A little, it runs in the family.”

Lili shook her head and turned around to fill up her bowl with popcorn, but half-turn she knocked it over and it crashed to the ground where it dissolved into thousands of pieces.

“Shit.” she cursed, already crouching down to pick them up. For a second Cole didn’t know what to do, then he shook himself out of it and crouched down too, grabbing one of the rather big pieces. None of them thought about cutting themselves at that moment, but of course it happend.

“Ow. Fuck.” Cole mumbled, his hand shooting back. Lili looked up.

“Did you cut yourself?” she asked. “Wait, let me see.”

She grabbed for his hand. “It’s not that deep, I’m sure we have some band aid somewhere.”

The both lifted their heads at the same time and Cole’s breath caught in the back of his troat. She was close. Very close. Again.

There was a sudden shift in the air. He could feel it. Suddenly, everything around them went quiet, the chatter of their friends in the living room, the far bustle of the street outside. Everything just faded into the background.

He knew that he would have to just lean forward a little to kiss her. Just a little bit. She was still holding his hand, but her eyes were as fixed on him as his were on her. Whatever this was, he somehow knew she felt it too.

In a sudden rush of confidence, he leaned forward just an inch or two and to his surprise she did the same. She was so close now, that he could feel her breath on his skin. Just a little bit further and…

“Are you guys okay?” Casey’s voice came from the door frame and they both jumped up, almost knocking over another bowl.

“Yeah…” Lili stammered. “I just knocked over a bowl. Don’t worry. We’ll be over in a sec.”

Casey nodded and turned around again, leaving them both in an awkward silence. The moment had slipped away completely, and Cole was desperately trying to find the right words, but all that came out was: “I… uhm… I’ll just bring this back to the living room.”

Lili nodded. “Yeah. I’ll clean up this mess. Oh… and there should be some band aids in the second drawer of the commode in the hall. For your finger I mean.”

She gestured vaguely towards him, clearly avoiding his gaze. He just nodded stupidly and left the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	5. Chapter 5

„So, are you going to tell me what happened in the kitchen between you and Cole Friday night or do I have to make allusions for a week before you spill the beans?” Liz asked, as she dropped down on Lili’s bed the following Sunday. 

They had met up to do face masks and Lili almost dropped the package she was opening.

“I… I don’t know what you mean?” she stammered, kicking herself mentally for being so obvious. 

“Oh, come on Lili.” Liz threw her hands up dramatically and shot a look at her best friend. “Casey saw you guys. And to be honest, I wouldn’t have needed him to tell me. You guys were behaving super weird after you came back to the living room.”

“We were?” Lili asked, still acting as if nothing had happened. 

Liz rolled her eyes. “Seriously Lils, it was obvious. Before you went to get the snacks, you were laughing about every single one of his stupid jokes and after you came back, he dropped down on the other end of the couch and started focusing on the movies so much, it looked like he wanted to crawl into the television. And I wasn’t the only one noticing that. Dylan says Cole has been acting weird since then, but he can’t get anything out of him.”

“So, he sent you after me?” Lili raised an eyebrow.

Liz scoffed. “Bullshit. I’m your best friend and I care about you, that’s why I’m asking.” 

“And because you’re nosy as fuck.”

“Yeah, that too.”

Lili took a deep breath. It felt wrong not telling Liz about what had (or almost had) happened in that kitchen, but she wasn’t sure if she could actually give a coherent answer. Because she herself hadn’t really figured out what all this was about. Everything had happened so fast, that she wasn’t even sure if she maybe, imagined it. Had he really leaned in or did he just inch closer to help pick up the pieces of the bowl she had dropped? If it was the latter, why hadn’t he pulled away when she had leaned forward. Because she was sure she had, although unconsciously. Her body had just reacted for her and to be honest, she didn’t know how to handle that. 

And if there was really something, wouldn’t it be only fair to talk to him first, before she dissected the whole situation with her best friend? If only she would be able to summon the courage to do that. Instead she had laid in bed last night, thinking about various ways to talk to him about it. First, she thought about calling him, but that seemed too cold and impersonal. For a hot second, she had thought about just going over to his house and talk to him about it face to face, but she dismissed that idea immediately. She couldn’t even sum up the courage to call him, how was she supposed to go over to his house and just talk to him? 

“Lils?” Liz voice pulled her back from her thoughts. “So, are you going to tell me or nah? Don’t leave me hanging here!” 

Lili got up, walked over to the bed and let herself drop onto it, face first into the pillows. She mumbled something unintelligible.

“What?” Liz asked.

“I said it’s not that easy Liz.” Lili lifted her head from the pillows and sighed. “I haven’t figured it out myself yet to be honest.”

“Well Casey said, you guys looked like you were about to kiss.”

Lili turned around and shrugged her shoulders. “Could be yeah. But it could have also just been him leaning forward to collect the pieces of the bowl.”

“Uhu, yeah sure.” Liz shook her head slightly and grimaced. “He totally just leaned forward and was literally two inches from your face, just to collect the pieces of a bowl you dropped. Totally reasonable.”

“What do you want me to say Liz?” Lili huffed. “I can’t read his mind, I don’t know what he wanted.”

“Well then talk to him about it and find out.” 

“And what do you want me to say? Just ring him up and be like: ‘Hey, about what happened on Friday, did you want to kiss me or not?”

“I mean it would be a start…”

Lili shoot her a look and Liz sighed.

“Okay, okay. Let’s look at it from a different angle then. Did you want him to kiss you?” Lili froze for a second. Did she? She liked him, that she was sure about. He made her laugh, although his humor could be exhausting sometimes, he was intelligent, so much that she asked herself sometimes, if he really belonged in an average High School in Cleveland and not some program for highly gifted students. He of course would brush it off with a wave of his hand and say that it was all just fancy words. And she couldn’t deny that he was objectively attractive. The unruly black hair, the green-blue eyes that fixed their gaze attentively at everyone he was talking too. Plus, she would be lying if she said, she hadn’t noticed the way his arms looked like in those ridiculous white tank tops he insisted on wearing. So yeah, maybe she had wanted him to kiss her, but like everything about this situation, she wasn’t sure about that either.

…

“Cole?” 

Cole looked up from his laptop, where he was trying to focus on editing some pictures he had taken the previous day. While he loved his photography and the process of his pictures slowly becoming the way he actually wanted them to be (not that they ever did, but sometimes it got close), this time, it was rather an activity to keep his mind off what had happened in the Reinhart’s kitchen last Friday night. Ever since then, it had been playing in his mind, over and over, until he wasn’t sure anymore if he had really gotten the details right. Had she leaned forward too or was that just something his brain had made up afterwards. Had he imagined the slight movement of her upper body, the way she leaned closer, how she tilted her head just a little or had it really happened? He’d been wrestling with all these questions for the past hours, barely paying attention to what happened around him and his family had to shake him out of his thoughts more than once. The band aid around his index finger didn’t really help either.

“Yeah?” he said, looking at Dylan who was watching him from the other end of the living room, where he had slumped into an arm chair, currently with his feet on the head rest and playing some video game upside down. Normally he would have been right there next to him (maybe not upside down, but who was he to judge), but not today. His competitive side always came out during those long Sundays in front of a TV-Screen and it hated to lose. With his mind else where he wouldn’t be able to focus on the game and his selfish, competitive side was in no mood to put up with that or his brothers’ banter. 

“Are you… going to tell me what’s bothering you or do I have to try and see if that ‘twins-can-read-each-others-minds-cliché’ is really true?” 

Cole scoffed. “You are not as funny as you think you are, you know?” 

Dylan rolled his eyes. “Don’t deflect. Your sarcasm is not working with me.”

Cole sighed at that. Sometimes he hated the fact that his brother was able to read him like an open book. Especially when it was about things he himself still hadn’t figured out. Which was precisely what this was.

„Soooooooooo?” Dylan asked, emphasizing the “o” because he knew that it would push his brother’s buttons. 

Cole shut the lid of his laptop and slumped back into the couch, a frustrated sigh leaving his mouth. 

“Well, I would tell you about it if I knew what it actually is.”

“Something is bothering you and you don’t know what it is?” Dylan raised an eyebrow. “Your weird bro, seriously.”

“Uhu, I’ll start taking your advice once you’ll learn how to sit like a normal person.”

This time Dylan scoffed, but shifted to an upright position.

“Well, okay. Maybe then start at the beginning. What is the reason that something, whatever it is, is bothering you?”

Cole hesitated for a minute. He didn’t know why. Since he could remember, him and Dylan had shared everything. His brother knew him better than anyone else, but this, for some reason, was something he was hesitant to talk about.

After another minute he took a deep breath and then decided fuck it, maybe he needed to talk to someone about it, to figure this out. 

“You remember that Lili and I went to refill the snacks on Friday?”

Dylan nodded.

“Well, she dropped this bowl and we both crouched down to gather the pieces, which is where I cut my finger. And when I looked up again, she was suddenly so close and… uhm, we almost had a moment. At least I think we did.”

“A moment? What kind of moment?”

“Like an almost kiss.” 

Dylan almost dropped his controller. 

“You almost kissed her? And you didn’t tell me?”

“You sound like grandma’s friends from Bingo.”

“Oh, fuck off. What do you mean you almost kissed her? Wait is that why you guys acted so weird for the rest of the night?” 

“Probably.” Cole mumbled. “I mean I’m not even sure anymore if it really happened or if I imagined her leaning in. It all happened so fast.”

Dylan was quiet for a while.

“Did you try asking her about it?” he suggested. 

“I… I can’t really gather the courage to be honest. It’s just… I’m not even sure if she wants to talk about it.”

“Oh god, you are completely clueless, aren’t you?” Dylan said.

“About what?” 

“Dude, she likes you. Have you not seen the way she looks at you? Well, actually she looks at you the same way you look at her when you think nobody is watching and its disgustingly cute.”

“I’m not…” Cole started, but Dylan interrupted him.

“Don’t you dare deny it. You are staring at her like ALL the time. I’m not even sure if you’re realizing it. And I swear to god, if you don’t go talk to her I’m going to drag you there.”


	6. Chapter 6

„We need to do something about them.” Dylan whispered to Liz the next Monday during their shared English lit class.

“And what do you want us to do?” Liz asked, also whispering, her eyes pinned to the teacher in front of her trying to not draw attention towards them.

“I don’t know, but we can’t let them look at each other awkwardly during lunch until they get their shit together and talk to each other. I swear if I have to deal with my brother acting all weird and never paying attention to anything around him for one more day I’ll kill him.”

“That’s very selfish of you Dyl.”

Dylan rolled his eyes. “Come on. You know as well as I do that if they don’t talk to each other we’ll have to make them. They’d be good for each other.”

Liz sighed a little. “I mean, you are right, but shouldn’t we give them a chance to sort it out on their own?”

“They had two days and when they crossed paths today they barely looked at each other. And furthermore…” he stopped for a second.

“Furthermore?” Liz insisted.

“Well, I know this sounds a little bit arrogant, but I know my brother better than anyone else and he… he really likes her. He took a picture of her for fucks sake and don’t tell him that, but I’ve seen him staring at said picture. Plus, he stammers when talking about her. Cole NEVER stammers.”

Liz thought for a moment, then a cheeky smile spread on her face.

“I think I have an idea.”

…

“Seriously Dylan, I don’t understand why I can’t explain it to you at home? It’s just English literature.” Cole groaned, following his brother towards an empty classroom.

He really had planned on talking to Lili today, but when he had seen her at lunch he had choked on his own words. For the rest of the day he barely had been able to focus on his classes. By now he was just mad at himself and wanted nothing more than to go home and release his frustration through some unnecessary violent video game.

“I told you that I’m meeting Liz after school, so you have to do it now.” Dylan answered over his shoulder.

Cole rolled his eyes but followed his brother into the classroom.

When he entered and lifted his head he was surprised to see Lili leaning at one of the tables. She seemed as surprised as he was to see them entering.

“Cole? Dylan? Wait what are you guys doing here?”

She looked back and forth between them. With a start Cole realized what was happening, but before he could react, Dylan had sprinted out of the room, closed the door and locked it behind him.

“What the…” he exclaimed and jolted the door handle. “DYLAN, OPEN!”

“No!” It wasn’t Dylan’s but Liz’s voice that penetrated through the closed door.

“You guys won’t get out of there until you talk to each other. We brought enough junk food to spend the night here, so take your time.”

Cole took a deep breath and turned around to Lili. She had turned beet red. Just the sight of that made him want to kiss her senseless.

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Well, hi.”

She seemed to relax a little. “Hi.”

“What did they tell you to get you in here?”

“Liz said she needed help with Algebra.”

Cole rolled his eyes. “Dylan said he needed help with English Lit. They aren’t even creative.”

They looked at each other for a second and then, without really knowing why both broke into laughter.

“This is ridiculous” Lili giggled and sat down on one of the chairs.

“I know right? Like something out of one of those weird ass High School movies.” Cole chuckled, slumping down in the chair next to her.

“So, I guess we have to talk, won’t we?” Lili said after a few minutes of mindless giggles, looking him directly in the eye. Cole had to force himself not to drown in the green of hers. This was important.

“Seems like it yeah.” he answered.

For a moment they were both quiet, searching for the right words to start their conversation.

“So uhm… what was that on Friday?” Cole asked finally. He knew he probably sounded like an idiot, but he figured that the easiest way to address this was to get right to the point.

Lili huffed a breath and threw her hands into the air. “The fuck if I knew.”

“Did you just swear?”

She crooked and eye at him. “You really want to talk about that?”

“Sorry, I was just surprised.”

“You’re constantly underestimating me Sprouse. I’m not as fragile as I look”

“Do I?” Cole smirked.

“A lot.” Lili fired back. “But back to the actual point: I have no idea whatever that on Friday was… it’s not that something like this has ever happened to me.”

“What do you mean with ‘this’?” Cole asked.

Lili sighed and waved her hand between them. “This... Us... You.”

“Me?” Cole tried his best to not focus on the fact that she just had referred to them as “us”.

“I... God this is ridiculous.” Lili was starting to get exasperated. Why the fuck couldn’t she just tell him?

“I’ve known you for three weeks. THREE weeks. And it already feels like I’ve known you my whole life. You are always in my head and I don’t even know why. I… I’m usually a quiet introverted person. I don’t warm up to new people that fast. But you… that’s a whole different story. I’ve never liked someone so fast… and that much.”

Cole’s head snapped up at her last words.

“That much?”

“Oh, come on, you know what I mean, don’t play dumb.”

“Okay well… I mean…” For fucks sake, what was he doing? Why was he stammering?

And then he suddenly knew what to do. If he couldn’t find the words, he would just have to show her. So, he got up, took two steps towards her and did what he should have done two days before when they were kneeling on that kitchen floor. He bent down, cupped her face and kissed her.

…

To say it felt like fireworks would be an understatement. It was like her lips had set free a storm inside him and had hit him like a lightning strike. The fact that she tasted like strawberries wasn’t helping either.

To his surprise she suddenly got up, without her mouth leaving his and backed him up against a table, her arms coming up and looping around his neck. The kiss deepened and god, he wanted to do this the whole fucking day. But maybe not here.

So, he pulled back, trying to catch his breath, leaning his forehead against hers and opening his eyes. Hers were still closed but she was smiling, and it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

  
“Holy shit.” she mumbled and opened her eyes.

Cole couldn’t help but chuckle. It was pure joy and relief that bubbled out of him.

“Holy shit huh?” he said, and she gave him a playful shove.

“Don’t get full of yourself. Maybe this one was just luck.” the playful undertone in her voice widened his smirk even more.

“I bet we can repeat that.” he said.

“Well.” Lili grabbed his collar and pulled him in again. “Prove it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	7. Chapter 7

„I GOT IT, I GOT THE PART!” Cole swiveled around in front of his locker and saw Lili almost running towards him, as much as running was possible in the over crowded halls of their High School. Casey and Mads were following behind  her.

He took a step towards her and swept her up in a bear hug.

“See, I told you, you’d get it.” he mumbled into her hair. “Congrats babe.”

“Thank you.” she responded. “I’m not sure if I’d even tried if it was for you.”

“Bullshit, this is all your work and you know it.”

…

The parade of aspiring actresses and singers was never ending. Cole knew that he was being biased, but quite frankly he couldn’t see any of them in the part of “Sarah”. It’s not like he could judge much of the acting or singing but growing up in Los Angeles one got used to a certain kind of artist. The kind that was only in for the attention.

And apparently in this school, there were A LOT of them. They strutted on-stage with high heels so high that just looking at them made Cole nauseous. Their Make-Up was over done and the acting parts and songs they auditioned with were to much for either their acting skills or their vocal cords.

Cole slumped deeper into his seat and forced himself not to roll his eyes at the fiftieth version of “Rolling in the Deep”. He tried to capture everything and keep himself busy, while waiting for Lili to finally step on stage.

But the audition was in alphabetical order and just as Cole wondered how many fucking people had a surname that started with “S” and why they were all auditioning for this part, Mrs. Davis called out her name.

“Reinhart, Lili”

The difference to all the other girls that had auditioned was clearly visible, the moment she set a foot on stage. She wasn’t especially dressed up, her make up wasn’t overdone and she still looked ethereal. No, that wasn’t it. She looked like herself.

All the others had seemed like they were wearing a costume, like they were playing two roles instead of one. The one of the confident aspiring actresses, and the one of “Sarah”. Lili meanwhile was all herself and just here because she really wanted this part. Because this was her passion. Her goal.

The singing part was first, and he knew that she felt nervous about it. They had spent a whole afternoon at her place, prepping for the audition and while she had gladly let him read the parts of the dialogue that weren’t hers, she had refused to sing.

“Oh, come on Lils, I’m sure you have a beautiful voice”

“No, I’m just to nervous.”

“Lili we are literally two people in your room. I promise I’m not going to produce a camera out of thin air and broadcast it to the world.”

But she had remained stubborn.

So, when she started to sing now, he nearly dropped his camera in surprise. Her voice was AMAZING. Actually, he was pretty sure that was what angles sounded like. Cole knew that he was staring at her by now and that he probably looked pretty dumb. But to be fair, he wasn’t the only one staring in the auditorium.

She moved and looked like she belonged on that stage. Her eyes were closed, she tapped along to the melody with her foot and it seemed like she had never done anything else in her life. In that moment he would have sworn he hadn’t seen and heard anything more beautiful in his life.

When Lili opened her eyes again as she stopped singing, they locked briefly with his and he hoped that he could tell her with just this one look how amazing she had been.

The acting part of her audition was even better. She looked so natural on that stage, like she’d always been there, like she… had been born to do this. Cole had to force himself to not just snap away and fill his whole memory card with pictures of her.

After her audition, Mrs. Davis called for a brief pause before the last aspiring lead actresses auditioned and Lili jumped of the stage and came over to him, beaming.

He couldn’t help it, he had to pull her close and kiss her, although Mrs. Davis cleared her throat loudly and shot them daggers.

“THAT was the voice you were so nervous about?” he asked when they pulled back.

“So, you think it was good?”

“Good? Baby, Adele better fucking watch it. If the acting career doesn’t work out, you got some grammys waiting. And I don’t even get me started about your acting. You looked like you were born to be up on that stage Lili.”

She blushed and dipped her head shyly.

“Thank you.” It was barley a mumble.

Cole put two fingers under her chin and pressed it upwards softly.

“Hey, no need to thank me. I’m just stating facts. I’d bet my camera you’ll get this part.”

She grinned and raised an eyebrow.

“Your camera huh? Wow, I must have been really good then.”

“Of course, you were.”

…

“So, we gotta do something to celebrate this, aren’t we?” Cole said and threw an arm around Lili’s shoulder while they made their way down the hall way.

She smiled at him. “Sounds good, what do you have in mind?”

“That’s a surprise. Just be ready at 7.”


	8. Chapter 8

The doorbell rang at 7 p. m. sharp and Lili almost flew down the stairs to open the door. It felt like a cheesy cliché from a bad teenage drama, but for the first time in her life, she didn’t care. Let people think whatever they wanted. Maybe she was cheesy, maybe she was typical and maybe she was validating every single assumption ever made about falling in love, but it just felt so right.

“See you later!” she yelled in the direction of the kitchen and grabbed her keys from the bowl. Her hand was already on the door handle when her mom stepped out into the hallway.

“Is that him?” she asked, crossing towards the door with a few determent steps. “Why such a hurry, let him come in for second.”

  
Lili huffed. “Mom, please. Can we do the whole interrogation thing another day? I don’t want to scare him off right away.”

Her mother crocked an eyebrow at her. “Excuse me? Are you trying to say I’m scary?”

“No.” Lili laughed. “Not at all. Just… you know, protective. And don’t even get me started about Dad. I swear I’ll bring him over to say hi soon, just not tonight.”

Her mom rose her hands in defense. “Okay, fine. But I want to meet him soon.”

“I promise you will!” the words had barely left Lili’s lips when the door closed behind her.

…

At the sound of the closing door Cole turned around and couldn’t help but smile as he took her in. She was beaming and looked effortlessly beautiful, dressed in a light summer dress and barley any Make Up on. The light breeze was playing with her hair and the dim light of the evening made it almost seem golden. Suddenly the air around him seemed to buzz with all the light that was radiating from her. It filled the slightly chilly air of the early October evening with an unfamiliar warmth and a feeling that made him want to capture the moment and bottle it up for whatever dark moment the future had in store for him.

When Lili slung her arms around his neck and got on her tiptoes to kiss him though, he felt like even if fate would decide to throw him the most unmanageable tasks, he’d gladly take on every single one of them if she’d only be right there next to him.

“Hi.” she murmured when they pulled away.

“Hey.” he answered.

From somewhere nearby, they heard a giggle and he felt Lili flinch.

“Oh my god, I’m going to kill them.”

She buried her face into his neck to hide her blush.

“I’m sure we don’t have to resort to such drastic measures, just because someone giggled.” Cole joked.

“No, you don’t understand. Those are my sisters’ giggles. They are probably watching us from my younger sister’s room up there.” she pointed vaguely into the direction of her sister’s window and then added a little louder. “Because they have absolutely no fucking clue what the words privacy means.”

More giggles penetrated from behind the window.

“Well.” Cole shrugged. “If they want a show let’s give them one.”

And before Lili could respond anything, he was kissing her again, only much more fiercely and passionately this time. She froze in surprise for a second, but then melted against him. It felt exactly like their first kiss back in that abandoned class room a few weeks ago, only with the difference that they weren’t alone this time. Once again however, she found herself thinking that she couldn’t care less who saw and who didn’t.

When they came back up for air, she felt flustered and a little breathless.

“Okay, if it leads to you kissing me like that, they can snoop around as much as they want.”

Cole laughed at that and hugged her tighter.

“Gotta give the people what they want.” he chuckled, then grabbed her hand and pulled her down the driveway.

Only now, Lili noticed the army green Jeep that was parked at the side walk.

She stopped in her tracks.

“Wait, is that your car?” she asked, her eyes doting between him and the Jeep.

He nodded slightly. “Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know, I just… I think I would have seen that one in the schools parking lot by now. And how the hell did you maneuver L. A. traffic with that thing?”

“Well firstly, you couldn’t see it at the parking lot, because I’m not driving it to school. Finding a parking spot with it is hard enough, I’m not even giving it a try in that itsy bitsy, parking lot of our school. Too much frustration too early in the morning. And as for your second question: I didn’t. I just randomly yelled at other drivers all the time. It wasn’t pretty.”

Lili chuckled at the mental image of him, impatiently drumming his fingers on the staring wheel, while shooting death stares at other drivers that cut into the road in front of him.

For some reason it seemed almost absurd to her. It just didn’t seem like the self-confident, always joking and easy-going Cole she knew. But that thought had something thrilling about it. There were so many things about him she didn’t know yet, so many things that were still to be discovered and, looking over at him, she realized that she wanted to know all of them.

…

They had been driving for a while now and Lili was already wondering where this would take them, when she suddenly recognized a familiar road sign.

“Wait, that’s the highway that takes you to Bay Village.”

Cole sighed, a little overly dramatic. “I actually hoped it would take you longer to figure that out.”

“Tsk, you underestimated me. My whole family…”

“… is from there, I know. Liz was very helpful with that information.”

Only now it occurred to her that Liz had almost given away the whole thing. They’d been texting in the afternoon, first about the musical and how excited they were to get it on stage and then about the date. Well, to be honest, Lili had speculated about possible scenarios and Liz had just thrown in phrases like: “I’m sure it’s going to be epic.” She’d briefly wondered about her friend’s lack of participation in her own speculations, because Liz normally was the first one to draw vivid pictures of any situation one could imagine. No matter if they were talking about dates or the zombie apocalypse.

“Someone’s done his research huh?” Lili grinned.

He shrugged: “It was basically two text messages. I’d probably insult every decent journalist if I’d call that research.”

…

They arrived 23 minutes later, and Lili’s smile widened even more when she realized that they were pulling up to the beach that had marked her childhood. So many memories were tied to this place: first attempts of swimming, playing tag with her sisters, chocolate ice cream deliciously melting in her mouth and the happiness of the first days of summer.

She got out of the car, almost tripping over her own feet in excitement. For a few seconds her eyes were glued to the now empty beach. At the sound of the trunk being shut, she turned around again, just fast enough to see Cole lifting a basket and a blanket.

“Hungry?”

…

He brought Chipotle. Fucking Chipotle. Lili couldn’t believe her eyes when she looked into the basket and found three steak tacos. When she looked up at him again, the question of “How the fuck did you know?” already on her lips, he just smirked, waved a hand and said:

“Okay, maybe I did some more research than just two quick text messages.”

They both ate one and a half tacos and a full family sized bag of potato chips, while she recounted every single one of her child memories connected to this beach. It was well after sunset when she ran out of memories. By now she was wrapped up in his jacket and her gaze drifted up to the stars glistering above.

For a moment none of them said a word, then she turned towards him, a curious look on her face.

“What about you though? I’ve basically recounted my whole childhood tonight and I still don’t know anything about yours, except that it was in L. A. and that you guys were born in Italy.”

He shook his head a little and shrugged. “I don’t really know what to tell you. You are way more interesting than me.”

She scoffed. “Oh, come on. You’ve grown up in L. A. There must be some really good stories.”

He shrugged again: “Well, it kind of looses its glitz and glamour when you live your everyday life there. We lived in the Valley, pretty far away from any of the real celebrities. There were two of us, we were curious and quirky as fuck and somehow my dad still managed to stay patient and teach us stuff every day. We’ve had a bazillion spaghetti dinners and up until sixth grade we didn’t leave the house until our dad would draw monsters on our lunch bags. The rest is pretty much standard Californian teenage shit. You know, a lot of skate- and surfboards. And horrendous blond skater boy haircuts.”

Lili broke out into a giggle at that, trying to imagine him with blond bangs falling over his eyes and him shaking them out with the abrupt neck movement of every boy that had had that haircut.

He grinned and pulled her closer, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“You’re laughing at me?”

She shook her head, covering her mouth to suppress the giggles still spilling out of her.

“I’m gonna need to see pictures of that.” she chuckled and leaned into him.

“Oh hell no. They are all burned and gone forever.”

“I’m gonna find them, believe me. And if I have to conspire with Dylan.”

“Tsk, he would never commit such a betrayal.”

“You sure?”

“Nah. He’d be more than glad to help you actually.”

Lili leaned back into him, his arms wrapping around her. It was quiet again for a while, then she murmured:

“Cole?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you for this.”

”Always.”


	9. Chapter 9

The first semester of senior year passed by flying and before they knew it, christmas lights were lining the streets and the first flecks of snow were falling. Lili loved this time of year. The cold usually was the best excuse to snuggle up under a huge blanket, with a cup of hot chocolate and her favorite books and movies. An introvert’s paradise. Furthermore, the magic of Christmas was undeniable.

Cole however…

When him and Dylan came to school on December 3rd, after a weekend of snow relentlessly falling for 48 hours straight, her and Liz had to bite their cheeks not to laugh. The twins were dressed in more layers than the Michelin man, with scarfs covering half their faces and their hats pulled into their faces so deep that only their eyes were visible.

“Aren’t you guys overreacting a little bit?” Liz was barley containing her giggle. Dylan removed the scarf from his face and shoot her a look.

“It’s about –20 degrees outside. We are not used to this. The lowest it gets in California is 18 degrees. POSITIVE.”

“Oh, don’t be such a wuss.” Liz rolled her eyes at him and swatted his arm.

“What is even the point of Christmas if it isn’t cold?”

“The point is, that you don’t have to freeze your ass off.”

“Wuss” Liz repeated and turned around on her heels, striding down the hallway towards her Spanish class.

“Excuse me?” Dylan shut his locker with a bang, followed her and within 30 seconds, they were caught up in a discussion about the details of a perfect Christmas.

“Well, that was… entertaining.” Cole said, also closing his locker and looking after them while his arm came around Lili’s shoulder.

“He knows that his next class is the other way, right?” Lili asked, creasing her eyebrows.

“The fact that you know his schedule better than he does, should tell you everything. But first of all…” he bent his head a little to give her a soft kiss. “Hi.”

“Hi” Lili smiled and looked up at him.

It had been almost three months since their first kiss and she had gotten to know him better every day since then, things she’d gotten to know during lazy Saturday afternoons, study dates that barely contained any studying and trips to locations he’d made out for taking pictures. She had lost count on how many pictures he’d taken of her during the last months and she would be lying if she’d say that she wasn’t a little sad about the fact that he himself barely showed up in those pictures.

“I just prefer to stay behind the camera” he had said, when she mentioned it while they were lying on his bed, Games of Thrones playing on his laptop, empty cups on the nightstand.

That was another thing she had learned about him. He consumed astonishing amounts of coffee and he liked it pitch black, which made her wrinkle her nose, just thinking about it. She loved the smell of coffee, but the taste of it had always seemed too bitter to her.

She had also figured out what the faint undertone was that she’d caught when he had hugged her during lunch on their first day of school: cigarette smoke. She wasn’t really sure yet what to think about it, but she was far away from judging. Because that was him, that was Cole and she loved him, every side of him.

_She loves him._

It hit her right there in the school hallway, when she was gazing up into his eyes.

_She loves him._

“Lili?” his voice sounded like it came from far away and she had to snap herself out of it, tear her gaze away from his face to be able to focus her mind back to reality. “You alright?”

“I’m sorry. I was just thinking.”

“Tell him.” a little voice in her head yelled at her. But she couldn’t. Not here. Not in the middle of this crowded hallway. He deserved more. They deserved more.

“What about?” he asked.

“Nothing bad, don’t worry.” she stood on her tiptoes, pecking his lips lightly. “See you in English lit?”

He nodded, and she knew that he wasn’t totally convinced, but he pulled her in for a hug, then let go of her. She could feel his eyes on her when she made her way down the hallway. She turned her head again when she was about to round the corner and caught his gaze.

He smiled sheepishly, almost like he felt caught, waved at her and she couldn’t help but giggle.

…

It hit him a little earlier. It was Thanksgiving, they were leaving Cleveland to celebrate the holiday in California with family and he had never been so reluctant to go anywhere else.

Not because he had to sit through an awfully long family dinner or listen to conversations about topics that were about as exciting as watching grass grow, no, but because he wouldn’t see HER for a whole week.

A. WHOLE. FUCKING. WEEK.

Suddenly, 7 days evolved into an eternity and time seemed to work against him. Every minute was ticking forward crucially slow and by the third day he was positive he was going nuts. Sure, there were text messages and facetime calls, that spread out well into the night, but somehow that wasn’t enough, when all he wanted was to hug her tight and never let go.

“Keep it together,” Dylan had said and nudged him in the side in what was intended to be a supportive gesture.

“We’ll be back there in no time.”

“If only.” Cole had thought, leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes, wishing he could just sleep for 4 days straight.

The moment they arrived back in Cleveland and had unpacked, he was out the door. They had plans to meet up the following morning, but every other minute without seeing her, was a waste of time and so he shot her a quick text.

“Meet me at the orphanage?”

She arrived 5 minutes after him, a bright smile lighting up her face that he could immediately feel spreading out on his too as soon as he saw her.

“Hey, I thought we were going to meet...” Lili started, but before she could finish her sentence he had grabbed her face between his hands and kissed her.

“Alright.” she chuckled, when they pulled back.

“Sorry, I just…”

I fucking missed you so much it physically hurt.

I wanted nothing more than to just come back here and be with you.

I love you.

**_I love you._ **

…

By the time Christmas rolled around, Cleveland was covered in a light blanket of white snow and the temperatures had dropped even more. Cole wanted nothing but to stay home, where the heating was on, and his dad kept the fire roaring in the fireplace.

(Yep, they had one of these cool things and he had to admit, when they moved in, he slightly rolled his eyes at his dad for insisting their new place had a fireplace. Now he considered it the most genius thing anyone had ever come up with).

But Lili, Casey, Mads and Liz had other plans. They had come up with the idea to go ice skating in the center, right under the huge Christmas tree the city had put up. It vaguely reminded him of New York City and that one Christmas break he and his brother had spent there with his father and his step mom, wandering through the streets of New York, their mouths hanging half open all the time. The City just had a flair and no one could deny it.

And while Cleveland was a pretty great city too, the only reason he was out here right now, with a scarf covering one half of his face, his hat covering the other half and Dylan fiercely mumbling about “Why the fuck are we even out here?” under his breath next to him, was that his girlfriend was a complete and utter minx.

Seriously, it had taken her about five minutes, one pleading look at him with those ridiculous green eyes and her lip slightly pushed forward for him to crumble. He wasn’t proud of it, but oh well, here he was, watching her walk in front of him, her arms linked with Mads and Liz.

“I swear to god, I’m going to freeze to the ground once we get to that Christmas tree.” Dylan mumbled.

“You know, you’re supposed to move, right? It’s ice skating, you know?”

“Cute, you really think I’m going to get onto that death track. Nope, you are not getting me there. I prefer standing on the sidelines and watching you guys fall flat on your faces.”

“Uhm, might I remind you that we have done this before?”

“Yeah when we were like twelve. I’m not risking it. You go ahead, I’m staying safe and sound. By the way, why are you carrying around that huge backpack? That’s not gonna help with the balance.”

“My camera is in there.” Cole shrugged.

“Oh, come one, I know you have smaller bags for that.”

“Seriously, Dylan, you are way too curious for your own good.”

“Tell me and I’ll stop asking.” Cole rolled his eyes and lowered his voice.

“Okay, Lili’s Christmas present is in there, but shut up it’s supposed to be a surprise.”

…

After a good hour on the ice track and nobody getting hurt due to some miracle, Lili was dragging him through the crowd and towards the Christmas tree.

She had just grabbed him by the hand and dragged him away so fast that he didn’t even have the time to react.

“Uhm Lils, where are we going?”

“The tree.”

“Alright, but don’t you wanna wait for the others?”

“Nah, I wanna show you something.”

…

A few minutes later they were standing directly under the big Christmas tree. Well, actually on the backside of it. There were barely any people around on this side of the square and just as if fate wanted to make this the cheesiest thing ever, it had started to snow lightly.

“Okay, what are we doing here?” Cole asked, looking at her questioningly.

“Well, it’s Christmas tomorrow and as I’m not going to see you, I thought I could give you your gift here.”

“Babe you didn’t…”

“Oh shush. I know you’ve been preparing something for weeks.”

“Wait, how?”

“You shutting the lid of your laptop like you had the nuclear codes on there when I came over the other day. Very suspicious, might I add. And I might have asked Dylan about it.”

Cole groaned in frustration. “I’m going to murder him.”

She laughed and drew her arms around his neck.

“Don’t. You know you’d miss him.”

“Only a little.” he responded and pulled her into his chest.

“You know, I brought your present too.” he mumbled into her hair and she lifted her head, beaming up at him.

“Great minds, huh?”

“Great minds.”

Lili detached herself from him and they both rummaged around in their bags.

When Cole looked up again, his mouth dropped open. Lili had pulled out a vintage polaroid camera, with a red bow on top. He jumped back onto his feet to get a better look at it.

“Lili oh my god. This is amazing, but how did you… I mean those are super expensive, how did you…”

She grinned. “I found it at the vintage store downtown. Seriously, it was not that expensive, and I figured you’d like it.”

“Like it? I love it. It’s amazing. Now mine is going to look like shit.”

“Let me be the judge of that.” she chuckled. Cole crouched down again, grabbed the present from his backpack and handed it over to her. She tore off the wrapping paper and when he saw her eyes light up, he breathed out in relief.

“You like it?”

“It’s great.” Lili answered and flicked through the pages of the photo book. “These are…”

“All the pictures I took of you during the last months, yeah. And there are still pages left. You know… for future adventures.”

“I… I look amazing in every single one. How the hell do you do that?”

“It’s easy with the right model.” he said and winked at her. She linked her arms around his neck again and stood on her tiptoes.

“Thank you. I really love it. I love you.”

They both froze for a second, Lili because she was not sure if she really said it and Cole because wasn’t sure if he really heard it right.

“I’m… It just came out… But.. I want you to know that I mean it. I really do.. love you, I mean. And you don’t have to say it back… I…”

He silenced her with a kiss. “Lili, you don’t have to justify it. Because god knows, I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	10. Chapter 10

A few days after Christmas Lili was sitting in her room, a book in her lap, a cup of tea in her hand and all cuddled up in her blanket. The house was quiet, because her parents were out with her younger sister to return a Christmas gift gone wrong and her older sister was out with friends. She relinquished in the quietness and coziness of it all before school started again and the really stressful part of the year began.

Everything was so quiet, that she flinched so hard almost making her fall of the bed when a snowball hit her window. She got up and walked over, peaking out.

She rolled her eyes a little when she recognized him under all the layers of cloth. Of course, he couldn’t just text her that he was outside. But the smug grin on his face was too adorable to stay mad at him for long, so she opened the window and leaned out.

“I thought you were scheduled for a Smash-Bros Marathon with Dylan?” she half yelled.

He just shrugged his shoulders and laughed: “It gets boring after beating him for like the 50th time. Also, your parents just came by.”

Lili narrowed her eyes at him. “They came by your house? Why?”

“If you let me in I’ll tell you. Seriously its freezing cold out here.”

“Come to the front door.”

…

After Lili opened the door to him and gave him a quick peck as a greeting, she frowned.

“Your face is super cold.”

“That’s because it’s like -20 degrees out there since the end of October. Seriously, humans should not live in that climate.”

She chuckled at that. “Aww come on, what would Christmas be without snow and cold?”

“Been there, done that. It actually works.”

She rolled her eyes, grabbed his hand and pulled him into the living room, where they dropped down on the couch.

“So, now tell me, why where my parents over at your place?”

“They invited us for New Year’s Eve.” Cole answered.

“You’re kidding?” Lili asked, her tone somewhere between appalled and amused.

“I swear, for once in my life, I’m not. So, this is either going to be the most embarrassing or the most amazing New Year’s Eve ever.”

“Urgh right. All the horrible childhood stories that could come up. Or even worse… pictures.”

“Or they are just all going to get along amazingly and this is going to be an awesome New Year’s Eve where I actually get to kiss a gorgeous girl when the clock hits midnight.”

Lili smiled and interlaced her fingers with his. “Or that. I’d very much prefer that option.”

“Me too. But to be completely honest, that’s not why I came over.” Lili could see that he was biting back a smirk.

“Ah yeah?” she said, as innocently as possible. “Why did you come over then?”

“Well, your parents said they were going to go to the Mall to return a gift and from the experiences I’ve had with that and the fact that you told me, that Chloe is out with friends, I deduced that we would have about two hours just for us. Which seemed like a much better plan, than beating Dylan at Smash Bro’s for the 51st time.”

“Well, done Sherlock.” Lili teased and leaned forward a little, closer to his face. “And what did you have in mind?”

“A series of things.”

She was about to give another witty answer, but before she could even take the breath she needed to form the sentence, he was already kissing her.

…

It turned out to be an amazing New Year’s Eve. For some reason everyone got along really good and the embarrassing childhood stories were kept to a bare minimum.

However, Lili finally got to see the, what Cole had called “horrendous, blond, skater boy haircut” because of course despite of Dylan’s and Cole’s best attempts to keep the pictures “under wraps” their Dad had a backup on his phone.

“See, I told you it was horrendous” Cole said, a little irritated when she was still giggling with Liz 10 minutes later.

“Oh, come on, you were cute. And seriously, EVERYONE was wearing those” she said and leaned into him. His arms came around her waist and he put his head on her shoulder.

“You are CLEARY blind babe.”

She just rolled her eyes at him, pecked his lips quickly, then extracted herself from his arms and made her way through the room to help her mom with the (very oversized) buffet she’d organized.

…

It was 15 minutes before midnight, when Lili grabbed Cole’s hand and pulled him out of the living room, with a whispered: “Come on, I want to show you something.”

He followed her, watching the time a little uneasily.

“Baby, it’s only 15 minutes until midnight, don’t you want to be with your family?”

“We’ll be downstairs right after midnight, I just want to show you something really quick. Can you pull down the stairs to the attic?”

He quirked an eyebrow at her.

“Just trust me, okay?”

So, he pulled down the wooden stairs and she took the lead again, climbing up before him.

Whatever he’d expected from an attic (usually a lot of dust, old furniture and pictures), was not what this was.

This attic contained a couch, an old lamp and the walls were painted in a light shade of green. Right above the couch was a dormer, offering a view of the clear night sky. It actually looked pretty cozy.

“What is this?” Cole asked, while Lili dropped down on the couch.

“Well, my mom wanted it to be a reading room when we were younger, but it never really got finished. Its kind of her impending project. I… I tend to come here when I feel stressed out or overwhelmed. Or when my sisters are being annoying. Why are you still standing there? Come sit with me.” with that she patted the cushion next to her.

Cole sat down and she leaned into him, angling her head towards the dormer above them.

“I know it sounds silly, but I wanted you to myself at midnight.” she mumbled. “It just seemed weird to have our first New Year’s kiss in the middle of all those people down there.”

“Not silly at all.” he responded, slightly stroking her shoulder.

“Do you remember when we were at the beach and you told me about the constellations?” she asked.

“How couldn’t I?” he slung his arms around her as she sagged back into him, resting her head against his chest.

“It’s funny, every time I look up at the stars now, I think about that. We’ve been creating so many memories in just three months and I wouldn’t want to miss a single one of them.”

 “Yeah, me neither.” Cole replied, dropping a light kiss on her head. “And imagine all the ones we can create in the year to come. With college and all.”

She nestled her face into his neck.

“I can’t wait.”

Downstairs they could hear the people in the living room growing louder. Midnight was approaching. The countdown was starting.

When it reached nil and the cheers exploded in the living room, the sky outside the dormer above them exploded into fireworks and bathed them in the light of a million colors.

Before Lili could even turn around to say something, she felt his arms slip back from around her, followed by a rapid “click. click. click.” He’d had the camera on him all night, so she shouldn’t have been surprised but it made her laugh nonetheless.

“You are never missing a good chance for a picture huh?”

Cole chuckled: “I would be a fool not to take a picture of you bathed in all those colors. There is really no better way to start of this year.”

With that he leaned forward, his hand coming up to caress her cheek slightly, his gaze softening, and kissed her gently.

“Happy New Year love.”

…

Light was already floating the attic when Cole opened his eyes and blinked against the brightness of daylight. It took him a minute to fully realize where he was, to realize that all the warmth came from Lili’s body next to him and that they had fallen asleep upstairs instead of returning downstairs to celebrate the New Year with everyone.

“Shit” he mumbled, rubbed his eyes and then carefully nudged Lili’s shoulder. “Babe, hey, wake up.”

She stirred and let out a protesting groan, burring her face deeper into the cushion of the couch.

“Lils, seriously, wake up, we fell asleep in the attic.”

Her eyes flew open and she sat up bolt right.

“Fuck, how did this happen?” she asked and turned around, her eyes wide.

“I dunno, we were tired I guess?” he shrugged his shoulders and she rolled her eyes at him.

“Well, obviously.” Lili flopped back onto the couch and looked at the ceiling. “I mean it doesn’t seem like they especially missed us. At least no one came up to search for us.”

“That’s depressing.” Cole chuckled. “Maybe we were just hidden well enough.”

“You weren’t” a voice from behind them made them both flinch and this time they both turned around quickly.

Dylan’s face had appeared at the top of the ladder. “Your mom found you guys, but apparently you looked so adorable, she couldn’t bring herself to wake you. She invited us to stay over though. Oh, and they sent me up here to tell you guys, that there is breakfast downstairs but you better hurry or it will be all gone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Sorry I neglected this story a little bit, but there has been so much going on lately and the exams are killing me. I hope after next week I can post more regulary.

As January turned into February, the rehearsals for the musical started to take on full swing. There were costume fittings and countless afternoons spent in the little school theatre. Props were built and painted, vampire teeth were bought and sent back, because quite frankly they looked disgusting.

Cole didn’t know exactly how many pictures he had taken during the last few months since rehearsals started, but there were a lot and he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to select only 20 of them for the year book.

He was also not entirely sure how many times him and Lili had gone over her lines, but as he was sitting on the office chair in her room and she handed him the worn-out paper sheets again, he couldn’t help but groan.

“Baby, you know these lines, we’ve been over them a billion times. Hell, even I know them.”

She turned around, seemingly stressed, putting her hands on her hips while she glared at him.

“Yes, I know, I know my lines, I just want to be really sure. Rehearsing them a trillion times doesn’t guarantee that I won’t black out on stage, but it makes me feel safe to go through them again.”

She hadn’t stopped a minute during the last few weeks, he knew that. In between rehearsals, the general stress of being a senior in Highschool and the waiting for College acceptance letters she hadn’t really taken a breath. And the only thing he wanted right now was for her to rest and have a quiet moment.

“Babe” he said softly, grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him. “You need to rest a little. Just for a minute. Take a nap. Or let’s just binge something. I promise I’ll go over the lines with you tomorrow again.”

She sighed a little and looked at him, chewing on her lower lip. She looked adorable like that and all he wanted to do was to kiss her senseless. The next moment the tension in her shoulders dropped and he knew he had won.

“Okay,” she conceded and slipped onto his lap. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.” he answered, nestling his face into her neck. “You are the one stressed out. What would help you relax?”

“Well, I think for now a cup of a warm beverage and a foot rub would do.”

Cole smirked at her: “I think we can manage that.”

…

They made a short subway trip to downtown Cleveland to get a coffee and a hot chocolate. Technically they could also make coffee and hot chocolate at home, but their families were there and to be honest, they were craving some alone time.

Granted the subway and the little coffee shop weren’t exactly places to be alone at, but they relinquished in the fact that it was just the two of them. And after they ate too much cake and respectively had two cups of hot chocolate and coffee, Cole suddenly said:

“You know back before we got together? When I photographed you in the abandoned orphanage? I was wondering if you’d like to do that again?”

Lili put her cup down. “You mean like a photoshoot?”

He shrugged: “If you want to call it that, yeah, a photoshoot. We can do it after the Musical premiers, but you know, I’ve been taking a lot of pictures during the last few months and I… I don’t know I just would like to see what they would look like if it was just you.”

Lili reached out and put her hand over his. “I’d love to.”

…

During the rehearsal the next Thursday, he kept his gaze especially on her. Sure, he took pictures of everyone, as per usual, but his eyes followed her everywhere. That was not unusual either, but before he was looking at her only as her boyfriend and he still did, but now, what Dylan called: "his photographer gaze" always played into it too.

And from that perspective, he suddenly recognized so many new details about her. How even the florescent and unideal stage light made her hair look like it was glowing, like she was carrying around a constant halo. The way she held herself up during her performance, the way she suddenly seemed a whole head taller, because her whole body straightened, and her gestures became more confident. The way her voice changed from sweet and innocent, to fierce and brave fighter in an instant, whenever the scene required it.

He’d known that she was good at this. Scratch that, he’d known that she was amazing. But from this other perspective, he suddenly realized that she was born to do this. Born to go up onto that stage and blow people away with her performance. And he was not the only one seeing it.

Dylan, who’d joined him in the audience seats that day, watching the rehearsal because “he was bored” (if you’d ask Cole he assumed, it rather had something to do with Liz also being in the play, than his brothers’ actual boredom), nudged him into the side at one point and whispered: “Wow, Lili is really slaying this.”

Cole just smiled to himself in the dark of the audience room: “Yeah, she really is amazing.”

…

The set out for the photoshoot one week before the Musical premiered. Lili didn’t exactly plan on going outside during that weekend, but then Cole showed up with a bunch of roses and a plan at her door and she hadn’t been able to say no.

They had been driving for a good two hours when he suddenly pulled of the road and onto a dirt track that let into a glim and dark looking forest. Kind of like the one they had tried to paint on the stage designs for the Musical.

“You are trying to kidnap me, right?” Lili joked and looked over at him.

He smiled softly, shaking his head in amusement.

“That was a pretty lame joke, babe”

“You just don’t have humor.” Lili answered, nudging his arm and then continuing looking out the window, dark trees with heavy snow pulling down their branches passing by.

They continued down the dirt track for another five minutes, until a large clearing appeared on the right-hand side of the car and Cole stopped. The sun was falling through the trees here and the clear blue sky that had been swallowed by the trees darkness up until now was more visible. The snow was kind of shimmering, right where the light hit the snow, just like a few hundred tiny crystals had been thrown onto the ground.

“How the hell does he keep finding these places?” Lili thought as she stepped out of the car, opening the back door to tug out the duffle bag she’d hazily had thrown some of her dresses in after he’d suddenly shown up at her door. He was astonishingly good at this. Whisking her away to places that contained a sublime beauty although they were either old or far off from everything she’d ever known. And most of them had always been right there, basically in front of her house. She’d lived here all her life, but in the day by day, in the mundane, one loses the sight for they beauty that’s right in front of them.

Not Cole though.

Lili searched the bag for a moment, pulling out the dresses one by one, until her hand grabbed white thin fabric and she couldn’t help but smile. It was perfect.

She climbed into the backseat, changing, eyes following Cole, who was walking around the clearing, basically sinking in to his ankles, the bunch of roses in his left hand. He put one into the snow here and there, every now and then turning around and looking towards the car.

When she climbed out of the backseat again 5 minutes later, he stalled in his movements, the expression on his face somewhere between adoration and concern.

“Babe, as amazing as this dress looks on you, don’t you think you are going to freeze to death in it?”

Lili shrugged her shoulders. “You forget that I grew up with winters that had temperatures below 18 degrees.”

He laughed at that again, trudging back towards her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a tight embrace.

“I’ll remind you of that when you come down with a cold next week.”

…

20 minutes later, Lili was freezing, but couldn’t really bring herself to care all that much. She was to wrapped up in the way he kept looking at her from behind the camera, softly giving her directions, shooting her a huge smile every time he got a good shot.

She’d known that he was good at this. She’d seen him at the rehearsals, basically climbing over the rows of seats to get good shots. He’d taken countless pictures on New Year’s, including the one of her bathed in the lights of the fireworks, which had quickly become one of her favorites.

But this out here, this was a totally different story.

This was just the two of them. No one else, no interruption, no snide commentary from the side about how they were “disgustingly cute”. It felt almost worryingly intimate.

Coles took the camera down again, looking at the last picture he’d taken and nodding with a satisfied grin.

“I think we got it babe”

“Oh really?” she asked, not able to cover the disappointment in her voice. She was cold yes, but she could have also done this for HOURS.

“Baby, you are going to freeze to the ground if we keep going for another while.” he sauntered over again, offering her his hand to pull her up from where she had been sitting on a blanket he’d magically produced out of the trunk of his car.

He wrapped his arms around her again and she buried her face into his chest, relinquishing in the warmth he radiated despite the cold air around them.

“So, you really think you got everything? That quickly?” she asked, still hoping to be able prolong this little adventure into the woods for a while longer.

He nodded and kissed her head: “Yup, that quickly. You make it more than easy to get beautiful pictures, my love.”


	12. Chapter 12

It was the night before the musical premiered and Lili couldn’t sleep. Maybe it was a small overreaction to be this nervous about a school play, but on the other hand, she had never played a lead and that was what made her exceptionally nervous.

And a little bit of stage fright never hurt anyone, right? With a little sigh, she turned for what felt like the hundredth time that night and glanced at her alarm clock. 1:30 a.m. And sleep was nowhere in sight.

This was not at all helpful. After all, there was still a school day to go through before the musical premiered in the evening.

She grabbed her phone from the nightstand, hoping that maybe some Netflix documentary would tire her enough to get at least a few hours of sleep. She doubted it, but it was worth a try and definitely more entertaining than tossing and turning. But before she could open the app on her phone though, a message came through. Cole.

“Is it weird that I can’t sleep, because I’m kind of nervous for you? Are we that kind of couple?”

She let out a quiet laugh and texted him back. “Maybe it is a little bit weird. But like that we can keep each other company in our insomnia.”

His answer came within seconds. “Sounds good.”

 A FaceTime request followed and before Lili knew it, it was two hours later, and she was fighting to keep her eyes open.

Because now that she didn’t want to, of course she was on the verge of falling asleep. She could hear Cole laugh quietly through the speakers of her phone.

“Did I bore you enough to fall asleep?”

Lili smiled back tiredly.

“I’m sorry. I swear you are not boring, but of course, now that I want to hear your newest rant on photoshops bugs, my body is giving into sleep.”

He laughed again and she suddenly wondered if it had always sounded that soft or if she was only noticing it now.

“You know you will do amazing tomorrow, right?” he asked.

“You sound so sure about that” she responded. His facial expression got softer at that and it made her heart beat a little faster.

“Because I’m 100 % certain that you will blow everyone away.”

…

Somehow, she had made it through the school day. She wasn’t really sure how; it all had passed in a blur. Getting up in the morning, coming to school, desperately trying to pay attention in class although she knew, it wasn’t worth the effort, people wishing her good luck for the premier, the panicked, last minute rehearsing of her lines and the steadiness of Cole’s arm around her shoulder for most of the day. It had been like he could feel her anxiety and like he knew that the weight of his arm around her shoulders steadied and calmed her.

But right now, while she was clutching the edge of the "make-up" desk that had been put up in the “backstage area” of their little school theater and staring at herself in the mirror, she felt the anxiety and stage fright bubble up again. The rational part of her mind told her, that she'd got this. She knew all her lines and they had been rehearsing this play excessively for the last weeks. But the other part, the one that seemed to really like plotting against her, told her quite a different story.

“Okay Lili, breath.” she told herself. “It’s going to be okay. You’ve got this.”

“Hey Lilis?” Liz’ voice shook her from her thoughts. She turned around, surprised to see her best friend holding a green box, with an equally green bow tied around it a little messily.

“Yes?” she asked.

“First of all: Stop it. You will be amazing. We are all nervous and a little stage fright is never bad, but you will rock this. I know this and you know this. And secondly: This is from lover boy. He asked me to give it to you.”

With that she handed Lili the box and winked at her.

“See you out there.”

Lili smiled to herself, as she surveyed the box. Of course, he had come up with something. He never ceased to surprise her.

She put the box on the table carefully, untied the bow and lifted the lit. The contents inside widened her smile. There was a letter, with post it stuck onto it.

“Read this first.”

With slightly shaking hands, she opened it.

 

_My beautiful resilient Lili,_

_I know you are probably freaking out right now and you are doubting your skills, but believe me, there is no reason to. You are brilliant, no you are beyond that. You were born to do this. If I learned this while watching you through these last few months its that you are passionate, your sheer talent for this is incredible and I’m so, so happy that everyone will get to see it tonight._

_Nonetheless, I know all these rehearsals have been hard on you and well, with everything coming up the next few weeks, its not like things will slow down anytime soon. So, I thought these few little items, might help you._

_face masks. They are essential right? Also, let it be known, that I might or might not have bought some for myself too. You’ve corrupted me._

_book. If the real world gets to be too much, there is nothing like a good scare to distract yourself. I heard this one is pretty scary. In case you need someone to be scared with, you know where to find me._

_note pad. Ready to be filled with the beauty that are your poems._

_glass full of shells and sand. Yes, I drove back to that beach we had our first date on. I know how much it means to you beyond the fact that we went there, so this way, you have a piece of it always with you. It also makes for a rat decoration item._

_And lastly, whenever you need me, I’ll be there. There is nothing I wouldn’t drop in an instant to be with you. One phone call, one message, is enough._

_Now, go knock them dead, baby._

_I love you._

_Yours until the end,_

_Cole_

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr: ccshbh


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